Bill Chappell

Bill Chappell is a writer and producer on the Newsdesk, in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.

Chappell's work at NPR has ranged from being the site's first full-time homepage editor to being the lead writer and editor for online coverage of several Olympic Games, from London 2012 to Pyeongchang 2018. His assignments have included being the lead web producer for NPR's trip to Asia's Grand Trunk Road, as well as establishing the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps on NPR.org.

In the past, Chappell has edited and coordinated digital features for Morning Edition and Fresh Air, in addition to editing the rundown of All Things Considered. He frequently contributes to other NPR blogs, such as All Tech Considered and The Salt.

In 2009, Chappell was a key editorial member of the small team that redesigned NPR's web site. One year later, NPR.org won its first Peabody Award, along with the National Press Foundation's Excellence in Online Journalism award.

At NPR, Chappell has trained both digital and radio staff to use digital tools to tell compelling stories, in addition to "evangelizing" — promoting more collaboration between legacy and digital departments.

Prior to joining NPR, Chappell was part of the Assignment Desk at CNN International, handling coverage in areas from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, and coordinating CNN's pool coverage on major events.

Chappell's work for CNN included editing digital video and producing web stories for SI.com. He also edited and produced stories for CNN.com's features division.

Before joining CNN, Chappell wrote about movies, restaurants and music for alternative weeklies, in addition to his first job: editing the police blotter.

A holder of bachelor's degrees in English and History from the University of Georgia, Chappell attended graduate school for English Literature at the University of South Carolina.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and a key ally to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are among the 120 rich and powerful people mentioned in the Paradise Papers, a new release of data about offshore tax havens and obscure financial dealings.

Sen. Rand Paul calls it an "unfortunate event." Police are calling it assault — and many people are trying to figure out why Paul's neighbor, a fellow medical doctor, might allegedly have attacked him with enough force to fracture five ribs. Paul was reportedly tackled while he was mowing the grass at his home in Bowling Green, Ky.

Police who were called to Paul's home shortly after 3 p.m. local time on Friday say they arrested Paul's neighbor, 59-year-old Rene Boucher, and charged him with fourth-degree assault.

The U.S. has pulled out of a pledge to conform to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an international group that was formed to add transparency and accountability to how governments manage natural resources. The U.S. says it can't comply with all of the EITI's requirements.

A State Department spokesperson says the U.S. will remain as one of 17 "supporting countries" of the initiative. A U.S. representative also serves on the EITI's international board.

President Trump says: "I'm the only one that matters" in setting U.S. foreign policy, thus downplaying the importance of high-level jobs such as the assistant secretary of state, which is currently vacant.

"Let me tell you, the one that matters is me," Trump said in an interview that aired on Fox News on Thursday night. "I'm the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that's what the policy is going to be. You've seen that, you've seen it strongly."

Allegations of sexual misconduct against three Dartmouth College professors have resulted in a multi-agency criminal investigation, says New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald.

All of the professors — Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen — work in Dartmouth's psychological and brain sciences department. They've been put on paid leave and their access to campus is restricted, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.

They both work in financial circles and have a Greek heritage. Other than that, there is little similarity between George Papadopoulos, a certified public accountant from Michigan, and the "other," more famous George Papadopoulos, the one who cut a plea deal after lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians as a Trump campaign official.

The Producers Guild of America has removed Harvey Weinstein from its ranks, hitting the movie mogul with a lifetime banishment that the group says came via unanimous decision, after allegations surfaced that Weinstein sexually harassed and assaulted numerous women.

"This unprecedented step is a reflection of the seriousness with which the Guild regards the numerous reports of Mr. Weinstein's decades of reprehensible conduct," the Producers Guild said. "Sexual harassment can no longer be tolerated in our industry or within the ranks of Producers Guild membership."

George Papadopoulos, who worked for President Trump's campaign as a foreign policy adviser, has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about meeting a professor with Russian ties who had promised to provide "dirt" on Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, has been indicted on federal charges that range from conspiracy against the United States to conspiracy to launder money. He was taken into federal custody Monday morning, along with his longtime deputy.

In a court hearing around midday, both Manafort and his co-defendant, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty.

The U.S. economy grew faster than analysts had expected in the third quarter of 2017, with the Bureau of Economic Analysis saying America's real gross domestic product increased at 3 percent — below the 3.1 percent rise in the previous quarter, but showing resilience in the face of debilitating hurricanes.

"Together they represent the fastest six-month period of growth since 2014,' NPR's John Ydstie reports. He adds, "Economic growth has reached or exceeded the 3 percent rate a number of times during this recovery, but the economy hasn't been able to sustain that pace."

The WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled Britain's National Health Service and hit thousands of computers around the world in May was almost certainly carried out by North Korea, says U.K. Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace.

The British government is "as sure as possible" that Kim Jong Un's pariah state launched the attack, Wallace told BBC Radio 4.

Australia's leadership is facing disarray, after its High Court said Barnaby Joyce was ineligible to hold office; the now-former Deputy Prime Minister is a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand. The ruling also means Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is now heading a minority government.

"I respect the decision of the court," Joyce told reporters on Friday, after judges ruled his seat is now vacant. Joyce held citizenship in New Zealand because father was born there.

The International Committee for the Red Cross is urging countries to handle captured ISIS fighters according to international legal standards, in the wake of the extremist group's loss of its so-called capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

The flow of foreign fighters to Syria, where thousands of would-be ISIS fighters flocked in recent years, has shown signs of reversing. The group once had tens of thousands of fighters at its command; last week, U.S. officials estimated that 3,000 to 7,000 were continuing to fight in Iraq and Syria.

It has the power to save lives by targeting opioid overdoses — something that kills more than 140 Americans every day. And now Narcan, the nasal spray that can pull a drug user back from an overdose, is being carried by all of Walgreens' more than 8,000 pharmacies.

Tesla has used its solar panels and batteries to restore reliable electricity at San Juan's Hospital del Niño (Children's Hospital), in what company founder Elon Musk calls "the first of many solar+battery Tesla projects going live in Puerto Rico."

The project came about after Puerto Rico was hit by two devastating and powerful hurricanes in September, and Musk reached out about Tesla helping.

A 17-year-old undocumented immigrant to the U.S. underwent an abortion procedure on Wednesday morning, after a weeks-long legal fight with the Trump administration, which had sought to block her from leaving the detention facility where she's being held in Texas. A federal appeals court ruled in her favor on Tuesday.

After a string of rulings and reversals in the case, the American Civil Liberties Union says that Jane Doe was finally able to get the treatment she had sought. She was referred to as Jane Doe to protect her privacy as a minor and a medical patient.

Nearly one month after an entire island was evacuated over concerns of a pending volcanic eruption, thousands of people are now being allowed to return to Ambae, and island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

Some 11,000 people live on the island, an oblong land mass that's dominated by the volcano that looms nearly 5,000 feet above sea level.

Police in Honolulu on Wednesday will begin writing tickets for people who get distracted by their cellphones while walking in a crosswalk. Honolulu is the first major city in the country to pass such a law, citing a high rate of pedestrians being hit in crosswalks.

"Starting today, texting while walking in a crosswalk can get you a ticket," Hawaii Public Radio's Bill Dorman reports for our Newscast unit. "In fact, a downward glance at a screen of any kind will cost you — a phone, a tablet, a video game."

E-cigarettes and vaping are being banned in indoor public areas in New York, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law that will place the same restrictions on new and old nicotine delivery systems.

Using language not heard since the Mao Zedong era, the Communist Party of China has adopted Xi Jinping's ideas for Chinese socialism, embracing its president anew and adding his "thoughts" to the party constitution.

The party added a section with the formal title "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" on Tuesday, as it winds down the congress it holds every five years.

One day after a Dubai court ordered Scottish tourist Jamie Harron to spend three months in jail over touching a man on his hip or rear end as he passed him in a bar, Dubai's ruler has ordered Harron freed. The case had generated calls for a boycott against the United Arab Emirates city.

If all goes well, people on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands could have power restored next week for the first time since a pair of devastating Category 5 hurricanes struck in September, the local electric utility says.

"Portions of St. John are scheduled to be restored by the middle of next week," says Jean P. Greaux, Jr., communications director for Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.

U.S. District Judge Susan Ritchie Bolton says that President Trump's pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio does not "revise the historical facts" of his case — and that she will not vacate her ruling that found Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt.

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that would have allowed a detained teenager who is in the U.S. illegally to have an abortion, in the latest twist in a legal battle between the ACLU and the Trump administration.

Federal prosecutors in Brazil are charging former Brazilian Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman with helping to run a criminal organization and other crimes, in a scheme that paid for the votes that brought the Olympics to Rio de Janeiro last summer. The evidence includes undeclared assets in the form of 16 gold bars.

Nuzman was arrested on Oct. 5, prompting him to resign as president of Brazil's national Olympic committee. Prosecutors announced charges against him that range from corruption and money laundering to evading foreign currency laws.

The state of Vermont has one year to prepare for something it has never had: a Target store. After years of pleading from some residents and anti-big-box sentiment from others, the retail giant says it will finally open a store in South Burlington in 2018.

The news prompted a "Breaking News" banner on the local paper's website. As they're saying over at Vermont Public Radio: "This is not a drill."

In response, Adam Maxwell wrote on the VPR Facebook page: "Welcome to 1995, Vermont!"

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked parts of President Trump's most recent attempt to impose broad limits on who can enter the U.S., granting a motion for a preliminary injunction that was filed by plaintiffs led by the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The plaintiffs "have established that they are likely to succeed on the merits," District Judge Theodore D. Chuang wrote in the Tuesday order dealing another setback to the Trump administration's attempt to ban travel to the U.S. by citizens of certain countries.

In late August, Hurricane Harvey brought record rainfall to Houston. In mid-October, the city's two large federal reservoirs have finally been emptied of the massive amount of water that had filled each of them to the brim.